No !!!!!!Big no-no! A lot of places are closed during Chinese new year, including shopping malls, official offices, places need tickets to entre, all closed during Chinese New Year.
6:42 Weather wise, yes; practicality wise, HELL NO!!!!! Avoid National Day in early October at all cost. It's the busiest time in the year when everyone is traveling. Places are so cramped that you won't be able to move around, like literally😅
I have lived in China for many years, your tips are accurate and could be very helpful to people who travel to China. One minor correction, VPN is not banned in China. Many people I know in China use VPN. Also, starting quite recently, foreigners don’t have to report to police stations anymore. And hotels cannot refuse your stay.
As a chinese, the VPN is actually not legal, but not literally illegal. But if you want to use it, and do not want to do some dangerous things then no one would give a shit. The police won't bother to arrest you, so actually nobody cares.
For some second tier cities and others, many hotels still need a license to accept foreign tourists. I once was in zhengzhou, and they couldn’t check me in because their hotel didn’t acquire the license to take foreigners. So I had to cancel that hotel and book another hotel that has the license
VPN is legal if you use a registered one by the government for business purposes - but those will not be private and have surveillance. Personal VPNs are not "legal" but they can't really police people who use it.
Or if for a short period of time, just keep using your overseas phone but have the roaming pack on. That way, you can just use your phone like in your own country and no need for VPN.
@@NateGGdog The reason I said that is because I have a friend working in the land office, which is a government department, she is using VPN. They call those Accelerator apps, which are actually VPNs. If China really want to ban it, no one could use it.
Spitting is exclusive to old men. They have not adapted to city life. They smoke all the year round, which is of no quality. Young people don't like that. They hate those people.
Not only the old Chinese but also the young Chinese spat on the floor. I remember the Chinese tourists who kept spitting on the lobby floor at a hotel in Singapore. They were around 30 to 35 years old. Eventually, the hotel refunded their expenses and deported them out of the hotel.
Visiting Tibet in the summer or Hainan island in the winter is actually highly recommended, wise to avoid the big 3 national holidays if you plan to visit tourism sites. About spitting, I think it's mostly a thing of the older generations, they typically went through the difficult years of post-war reconstruction w/o receiving higher education. I can't image millennials and younger gens doing that en masse as they're taught exactly not to do that, in primary schools already.
I also experienced the issue you mentioned about Alipay payments not going through. Later, someone told me that it was because the store hadn’t enabled support for credit card payments. Generally, slightly larger vendors will have this service enabled, so there’s no need to worry too much. The solution is to link a debit card. Hope it helps.
@Joelfriend the reason is because the smaller vendors are using their personal account instead of a business account. Credit card companies such as Master card or Amex would see this as a bank transaction and not a merchant transaction ans therefore decline.
Thanks for this great information, Joel! Very helpful! BTW There are countless amazing places to visit and explore in America. Hope you guys get over here one of these days. Wishing you well…
11:10 just a little background info to add here fyi, all those websites/apps are not just banned like there’s no freedom of speech in China. They did not want to adhere to Chinese laws like monitoring groups for antiterrorism reasons (which I think is fair, since any company is supposed to follow the laws in any country if they operates there) , that’s why they chose to leave China. China was like you either follow our rules or leave.
The two subway stations as your example are bsically a place and the place plus a character (-xi) meaning "west". They used to be like "Chegongzhuang West" so westerners can comprehend but it's not useful when you say them to a Chinese person. So in recent years all the English names were changed to the exact pronounciations to hopefully solve the problem. At the end of the day, it's better to learn some direction word before you travel to China, like dong - esat, xi - west, nan - south, bei - north.
It's hard to make an overarching statement about when are the best times to go to China as it's so vast and climates vary from region to region. It all depends on where you are going and what you want to see. For example, if you want to see the dreamy yellow rapeseed fields in Wuyuan, Jiangxi, you should go in mid to late March; if you want to see the romatic autumn colors of Hangzhou, Suzhou and Nanjing, you should go in late November. Also summer is a great time to go to the western parts of China such as Yunnan, Qinghai, Gansu and Xinjiang as weather is mild. If you want to see Tiger Leaping Gorge and avoid the wet season, its best to go before June. It is safe to say that all should try to avoid chinese hilodays though.
The followings you mentioned in your video is not really accurate : 1) China is a "Secretive" country?? You have been manipulated by your country's government. 2) Passport required in a convenient store?? I never had to show my passport when I bought from convenient stores in Beijing. 3) VPN banned in China? I do not think so. Many locals also use VPN. 4) You make it sound like China's so called "great fire wall" is preventing you use Google and that is so terrible. 😱 China can similarly use "National Security" as a reason to ban Google/Facebook/etc., just like the USA uses "National Security" to ban garlic from China, Huawei, EV cars, etc.!! 😂😂😂 5) Guests staying in small hotels have to register with the Police?? Maybe in remote areas in China? But most foreign tourists to China do not visit remote regions of China. In fact, many places I visited in Beijing, I only see local tourists, hardly any Western tourists. 6) China is a very friendly country, with lots of ancient sites to visit. Cost of living is low and people are helpful. Do not be influenced by lying politicians and media.
Do you know why foreigners must use the passport as ID.? Simple the passport is a standardized international format document that is issued by the traveller's countries. It has many anti counterfeit features. Driver's licences from other countries are not standardized and may not contain English or security features. As well each state or province in Canada, Australia, USA and many other countries each issue their own driver's licence. I think that these are the reasons only a passport is accepted as ID.
The beginning of May and Oct are NOT good time to visit China because there would be bank holiday. Especially the first 7 days in Oct, they are the worst. I used to go to the Forbidden City on 2 Oct; it was a nightmare. The staff there told me there would be 300k visitors per day. I think March and November are reasonable months to visit China.
vpn more users in china now，but its not legally，if you are foreigners no worry，because govt will not punish you if you only download it，but they will punish Chinese if caught by them unfortunately.but actually govt does not care this issue recently.
actually china government has declared hotel cannot use any excuse to refuse foreigners to check in , especially when they said you need to register at police before checking in, just tell them you dont need to register and they cannot refuse you to check in.
I love your video,because this video is objectively ,just a small thing,the spitting in public,the old people or the low quality people like to do that
using a vpn isn't banned in china. selling vpn services within china is illegal. that is a big difference. a lot of chinese use vpn providers in hk since it's a special region and doesn't follow all mainland regulations. how do you think people/companies do business with the outside world? how do you think your chinese viewers watch your yt videos? yes most people won't use a vpn because there is no need for it. china has equivalent apps for everything. probably only the younger professionals who know a bit of english might use a vpn to check western social media.
Not only the old Chinese but also the young Chinese spat on the floor. I remember the Chinese tourists who kept spitting on the lobby floor at a hotel in Singapore. They were around 30 to 35 years old. Eventually, the hotel refunded their expenses and deported them out of the hotel.
